100 signatures reached
To: parliamentary candidates
Save our countryside, protect our towns
Pledge to support changes to the planning laws if you are voted in to the new government: councils should have the power to block developments on Greenfield sites if there is alternative Brownfield land available. Communities should have a genuine say in how their land is used.
Why is this important?
Builders are lobbying the government to keep planning policy as it is. They say that their industry depends upon Greenfield sites being available to build on, without the need to use up Brownfield sites first.
This is causing misery across the country. We find that builders are cherry-picking the green fields on the edges of towns, because these are the easiest and most profitable sites to develop. Meanwhile, Brownfield sites are left to rot, or remain for years as piles of rubble in the heart of towns.
There are alternatives to the present policies which would keep builders in work, provide apprenticeships, supply just as many homes, avoid conflict with communities and would halt the relentless encroachment upon our precious countryside.
Please lobby the candidates for the coming general election to support the following proposals:
• To bring back the sequential testing of land, so that applications to develop Greenfield sites can be turned down if alternative Brownfield sites exist.
• To award grants for the decontamination of industrial land.
• To give incentives to councils and builders to renovate empty homes.
• To encourage the building of higher density homes on Brownfield sites, where this would not impact on the light and space of neighbours.
• To increase the tax threshold for renting out rooms to lodgers, so that there is less single occupancy of homes.
• To provide funding for the merging of houses, when this is appropriate, e.g. in large areas of high density housing, where a better mix is needed.
• To follow one of the main objectives of the National Planning Policy Framework: of ‘allowing people and communities back into planning’. There is rigour in complying with the rest of the framework – why not with this? Merely inviting people to comment on proposals is not good enough - communities should be genuinely involved in the planning process.
This is causing misery across the country. We find that builders are cherry-picking the green fields on the edges of towns, because these are the easiest and most profitable sites to develop. Meanwhile, Brownfield sites are left to rot, or remain for years as piles of rubble in the heart of towns.
There are alternatives to the present policies which would keep builders in work, provide apprenticeships, supply just as many homes, avoid conflict with communities and would halt the relentless encroachment upon our precious countryside.
Please lobby the candidates for the coming general election to support the following proposals:
• To bring back the sequential testing of land, so that applications to develop Greenfield sites can be turned down if alternative Brownfield sites exist.
• To award grants for the decontamination of industrial land.
• To give incentives to councils and builders to renovate empty homes.
• To encourage the building of higher density homes on Brownfield sites, where this would not impact on the light and space of neighbours.
• To increase the tax threshold for renting out rooms to lodgers, so that there is less single occupancy of homes.
• To provide funding for the merging of houses, when this is appropriate, e.g. in large areas of high density housing, where a better mix is needed.
• To follow one of the main objectives of the National Planning Policy Framework: of ‘allowing people and communities back into planning’. There is rigour in complying with the rest of the framework – why not with this? Merely inviting people to comment on proposals is not good enough - communities should be genuinely involved in the planning process.
